Walt Disney did not let nature run wild, so you should also stop running wild using and sharing misquotes.
The quote “You can’t just let nature run wild” is NOT by Walt Disney.
Actually, this line was a joke from the late Walter Joseph Hickel, the Interior Secretary for President Richard Nixon.
It is taken from The New York Times article
“We can’t just let nature run wild” – Walter Joseph Hickel
(Everyone Is Always on Nature’s Side; People Just Can’t Agree on What’s Natural and What’s Not By Timothy Egan, The New York Times, December 19, 1998) source
This is not the only Walt Disney misquote.
In fact, there are quite a number of them.
For instance, this popular quote, “If you can dream it, you can do it” is also not by Walt Disney.
According to this article by Catherine Ramirez, a former Disney cast member, the quote, “If you can dream it, you can do it” is by copywriter Sheralyn Silverstein who wrote this line for General Electric in 1981.
And this is what I found in the book “Disney Trivia from the Vault: Secrets Revealed and Questions Answered” by Dave Smith, Chief Archivist Emeritus of the Walt Disney Company.
Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald said he is very familiar with that line, because he wrote it.
According to Catherine, Tom was clearly referring to the line he adapted it to be, “If we can dream it, we can do it”, and not specifically “If you can dream it, you can do it“.
“If we can dream it, we can do it” is taken from the song lyrics “New Horizon“, the theme song of the now defunct Horizons attraction at Epcot, Walt Disney World.
You can see the “New Horizon” song lyrics here.
Walt Disney Misquotes
Here are more quotes incorrectly attributed to Walt Disney:
“Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever.” X
“The more you are in a state of gratitude, the more you will attract things to be grateful for.” X
The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.” X
“Leadership shows judgment, wisdom, personal appeal and proven competence.” X
“When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.” X
“The very things that hold you down are going to lift you up.” X
All these Walt Disney misquotes are all over the established quote websites, books, magazines and even newspapers.
While Walt Disney did not let nature run wild, but he is definitely wild about imagination, visions, dreams and ideas.
Walt Disney Did Not Let Nature Run Wild
Anyway, even though Walt Disney did not let nature run wild, this shouldn’t stop you from being wild about Walt’s inspirational quotations.
Here are my selected authentic Walt Disney quotations to share with you:
“I suppose my formula might be: dream, diversify and never miss an angle.” – Walt Disney
(Walt’s Profit Formula: Dream, Diversity, and Never Miss an Angle” by Mitchell Gordon, Wall Street Journal; 4 February 1958) source
“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” – Walt Disney
(Leadership Lessons From Walt Disney – How To Inspire Your Team, Disney Institute Blog,March 21, 2018) source
“……As I’d sit while they rode the merry-go-round and did all these things – sit on a bench…eating peanuts, I felt there should be something built, some kind of an amusement enterprise where the parents ad the children could have fun together.” – Walt Disney
(Video Clip Of Walt Disney Interviewed By Fletcher Markle, 1963, 10:54-11.11) source
This is another version by Walt Disney’s daughter.
“The germ of Disneyland planted itself in my mind when you and Sharon were little girls and I was taking you to the kiddie parks and zoos… Those days were among the happiest in my life. While you were riding merry-go-rounds, I was trying to figure how I could create a super park.” – Walt Disney
(My Dad, Walt Disney Conclusion, “Small Boy Dream Come True” By Diane Disney Miller As Told To Pete Martin, The Saturday Evening Post, January 5 1957, P. 81) source
“We’re not trying to entertain the critics. I’ll take my chances with the public.” – Walt Disney
(My Dad, Walt Disney Conclusion, “Small Boy Dream Come True” By Diane Disney Miller As Told To Pete Martin, The Saturday Evening Post, January 5 1957, P. 82 ) source
“Over at our place, we’re sure of just one thing. Everybody in the world was once a child. We grow up. Our personalities change, but in every one of us something remains of our childhood.” – Walt Disney
(Walt Disney: Conversations By Walt Disney, Kathy Merlock Jackson, University Press Of Mississippi, 2006, P. 14) source
“If picture post-card art moves millions of people, then I like it. If I’m corny, then millions of people in this country must be corny too.” – Walt Disney
(My Dad, Walt Disney Conclusion, “Small Boy Dream Come True” By Diane Disney Miller As Told To Pete Martin, The Saturday Evening Post, January 5 1957, P. 82) source
“To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America; with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.” – Walt Disney
(Speech On Opening Day Of Disneyland, July 17, 1955) source
Note: You can watch the 1955 Disneyland Opening Day by ABC Broadcast here.
“When we make our movies, we try to please ourselves instead of some composite, imaginary child.” – Walt Disney
(My Dad, Walt Disney Conclusion, “Small Boy Dream Come True” By Diane Disney Miller As Told To Pete Martin, The Saturday Evening Post, January 5 1957, P. 82) source
“A man needs a new set of problems to take his mind off his old ones.” – Walt Disney
(My Dad, Walt Disney Part Six, “Disney’s Folly” By Diane Disney Miller As Told To Pete Martin, The Saturday Evening Post, December 12 1956, P. 80) source
“Our most important aim is to develop definite personalities in our cartoon characters. We don’t want them to be just shadows, for merely as moving figures they provoke no emotional response from the public. We invest them with life a caricature of life.”
(Disney’s “Philosophy”; His Creatures Of The Screen, He Says, Are Simply Laughing At Our Human Weaknesses By Douglas W. Churchill, The New York Times, March 6, 1938) source
“Money is not my motivation. Money is a means to my creative end. Money doesn’t excite me—my ideas excite me.” – Walt Disney
(Still Attacking His Ancient Enemy—Conformity: Walt Disney Marshals The Forces Of His Imagination To Strike Out In New Directions—Despite Sneers Of Critics And Sophisticates By Edith Efron, TV Guide; July 17, 1965, PP. 12-13) source
“Everybody in the world is once a child. We grow up, our personalities change. But in every one of us, something remains from our childhood.” – Walt Disney
(Lux Radio Theater Radio Adaption Of Walt Disney’s Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Cecil B. DeMille Interviewed Walt, 1939, 55:18-25) source
“The same level you speak of knows nothing of sophistication and distinction. It’s where all of us are simple and naive without prejudice and bias. We’re friendly and trusting and it seems that if your picture hits that spot in one person, it’s going to hit the same spot in almost everybody.” – Walt Disney
(Lux Radio Theater Radio Adaption Of Walt Disney’s Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Cecil B. DeMille Interviewed Walt, 1939, 55:31-44) source
(The quote is also found in: Walt Disney: Conversations By Walt Disney, Edited By Kathy Merlock Jackson, Univ. Press Of Mississippi, 2006, P. 14) source
“Never do anything that someone else can do it better.” – Walt Disney
(Lux Radio Theater Radio Adaption Of Walt Disney’s Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Cecil B. DeMille Interviewed Walt, 1939, 40:09-11) source
“I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it all started with a mouse.” – Walt Disney
(The Disneyland Story, 27 October 1954, YouTube Part 3. 5:57) source
“A place for people to find happiness and knowledge.It will be a place for parents and children to share pleasant times in one another’s company: a place for teachers and pupils to discover greater ways of understanding and education. Here the older generation can recapture the nostalgia of days gone by, and the younger generation can savor the challenge of the future. Here will be the wonders of Nature and Man for all to see and understand.Disneyland will be based upon and dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and hard facts that have created America. And it will be uniquely equipped to dramatize these dreams and facts and send them forth as a source of courage and inspiration to all the world.Disneyland will be something of a fair, an exhibition, a playground, a community center, a museum of living facts, and a showplace of beauty and magic.It will be filled with the accomplishments, the joys and hopes of the world we live in. And it will remind us and show us how to make those wonders part of our own lives.” – Walt Disney
(TV Radio Mirror, December 1954, “Introducing Disneyland”: An Exciting Peek Into The Realm Of Dreams And Adventure, P. 62) source
“Somehow, you can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. The special secret it seems to me is summarized in four C’s. They are Curiosity, Courage, Confidence and Constancy. And the greatest of all is Confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.” – Walt Disney
(“The Amazing Secret Of Walt Disney” Interviewed By Don Eddy, The American Magazine, August 1955) source
(The quote is also found in: Walt Disney: Conversations By Walt Disney, Edited By Kathy Merlock Jackson, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2006, PP. 55-56) source
“To the youngsters of today, I say believe in the future, the world is getting better; there still is plenty of opportunity.” – Walt Disney
(Walt Disney: Conversations By Walt Disney, Edited By Kathy Merlock Jackson, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2006, The wonderful World Of Walt Disney Bill Ballantine, P. 137) source
“I want my children to know about these things [a wildlife scene showing the birth of a buffalo calf] , and to learn them from nature; they are part of existence, as natural and unashamed as breathing.” – Walt Disney
(“The Amazing Secret Of Walt Disney” Interviewed By Don Eddy, The American Magazine, August 1955, P. 114) source
(The quote is also found in: Walt Disney: Conversations By Walt Disney, Edited By Kathy Merlock Jackson, Univ. Press Of Mississippi, 2006, P. XV) source
“Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil.” – Walt Disney
(“The Amazing Secret Of Walt Disney” Interviewed By Don Eddy, The American Magazine, August 1955, P. 114) source
(The quote is also found in: Walt Disney: Conversations By Walt Disney, Edited By Kathy Merlock Jackson, Univ. Press Of Mississippi, 2006, P. 54) source
“Why worry? If you’ve done the very best you can, worrying won’t make it any better.” – Walt Disney
(“The Amazing Secret Of Walt Disney” Interviewed By Don Eddy, The American Magazine, August 1955) source
(The quote is also found in: Walt Disney: Conversations By Walt Disney, Edited By Kathy Merlock Jackson, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2006, P. 56) source
“Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature.” – Walt Disney
(“The Amazing Secret Of Walt Disney” Interviewed By Don Eddy, The American Magazine, August 1955, P. 114) source
(The quote is also found in: Walt Disney: Conversations By Walt Disney, Edited By Kathy Merlock Jackson, Univ. Press Of Mississippi, 2006, P. 54) source
“Sometimes I wonder if common sense isn’t another way of saying fear. “And fear too often spells failure.” – Walt Disney
(Conversations By Walt Disney, Edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson, Univ. Press Of Mississippi, 2006, “Walt Disney: World’s Most Successful Showman By Paul Molloy, Success Unlimited IV, September 1957, PP. 4-7, 26, P. 58) source
“I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you’re young. I learned a lot out of that.” – Walt Disney
(The Animated Man: A Life Of Walt Disney By Michael Barrier, University Of California Press, 2008, Ch. 2 A Cute Idea, The Self-Taught Filmmaker 1923-1928, P. 39) source
(The quote is also found in: The Walt Disney Family Museum) source
“When you’re curious you find lots of interesting things to do.” – Walt Disney
(The Walt Disney Family Museum) source
Note: All the above Walt Disney quotations are taken from various interviews found in newspapers, magazines, radio show and TV show.
Except for a few quotes taken from its official The Walt Disney Museum website and the two books “Walt Disney Conversation” and “Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney“.
Free Books About Walt Disney
Walt Disney did not let nature run wild, but you can run wild with excitement to know there books about Walt Disney freely available online.
Animated Man: A Life Of Walt Disney By Michael Barrier
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5
Walt Disney: The Triumph Of The American Imagination By Neal Gabler
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4
Walt Before Mickey: Disney’s Early Years, 1919-1928 By Timothy S. Susanin
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2 (pick PDF)
Walt Disney: An American Original By Bob Thomas
Click on this: Link
The Art Of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse To The Magic Kingdoms By Christopher Finch
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3
Walt Disney: The Mouse That Roared (Legends Of Animation) By Jeff Lenburg
Click on this: Link 1, Link 2
How To Be Like Walt: Capturing The Disney Magic Every Day Of Your Life By Pat Williams, Jim Denney
Click on any of these: Link 1, Link 2
Disclaimer: I do not publish or host the books on this site. It is copyrighted to their respective owners. All content cited is derived from their respective sources